Is Your Blog Just “White Noise” or Are You Engaging Your Audience?

One of the compelling questions asked during both Rain Camp and Inman Connect in NYC this past week was whether our blogs are making the connections we needed them to make.  There are blogs we read that capture our attention and keep us coming back for more.  However there are just as many and perhaps even more blogs you click past as they do not compel you to stay.

There were a few key reasons outlined that were powerful suggestions on how to create a blog post that would keep a reader engaged.  First and foremost was the length of a post.  Long posts are likely to lose readers quickly.  We are becoming a society with short attention spans.  With 140 character blips of information coming from Twitter and the scrolling screens of CNN consumers are not looking to read a novel disguised as a blog post.

In many cases bloggers are going to the extreme to try and show their knowledge of an area and stuff one post with an endless amount of information.  Adopting a less is more approach to your posts is likely to keep you from becoming part of the “white noise” blogs a consumer will ignore over time.

Another key component was the use of 2-4 appropriate outgoing links from your posts.  Linking to sources of information that are a higher authority than your blog is a great way to show your audience that you know how to connect them with the right people or places.  Internal linking also works if you are linking to a relevant post that you have written previously which will fill in more information on the topic you are discussing.

The final hint of course was formatting of a post.  Including photos to break up text and draw the consumer’s eye in is important.  Lines and lines of text with no breaks is a fast way to hear the click of  someone passing your by.  Though it is sometimes hard on to know if what looks good on your computer translates to a different monitor sizing making an effort is to break text with photos is important.

These are just a few of the tips and tricks shared over the last few days to help anyone who wants to improve their posts.  Most of them are simple and only require that you take a few minutes to think about the readership and business you are planning on building in 2010.